Kagetsu's eyes flashed with surprise as he looked at the ancient, yellowed, thread-bound book.
"Hmm? Did I just stumble upon some kind of treasure?"
The book clearly looked like a legendary cultivation manual. He hadn't expected to gain something like this by accident.
Carefully, he lifted it out and checked the wooden box again, but there was nothing else inside.
Setting the box aside, he impatiently flipped through the pages.
The text throughout the book was written in Scripts . Fortunately, he could more or less make them out. Even when he encountered the occasional character he didn't recognize, it wasn't a problem,Kikyo would certainly know it.
It was a little embarrassing to admit, but as a transmigrator who had grown up using simplified scripts , his grasp of traditional script was actually worse than Kikyo's, who lived in the Sengoku period.
In the era where Kikyo lived, kanji was used everywhere.
Official decrees from feudal lords were written in it. Buddhist scriptures and the writings of monks were also recorded in it.
For a priestess, literacy in kanji was an essential skill. The classics of shrine rituals, talismans, sutras, and barrier techniques were all recorded in that script.
Kagetsu quickly flipped through the entire book.
Although many of the obscure cultivation terms left him scratching his head, just from the title,Blood Sacrifice Tree Nurturing Method,and the scattered mentions of "human offerings" and "blood feeding," he could already tell that this was definitely not some righteous cultivation technique.
"This thing's too obscure. I can't make sense of it."
He handed the manual directly to Kikyo.
"Take a look and see what it says."
As the strongest priestess of this era, and someone skilled in various barrier techniques, he was certain she would understand far more of it than he could.
Kikyo took the manual and gave him a somewhat speechless look. Then she returned the stack of "elixir of immortality" recipes he had handed her earlier.
Lowering her head, she opened the book and began reading seriously, her fingertips lightly tracing the script.
Kagetsu casually stuffed the recipes back into the wooden box. He had absolutely no interest in such fraudulent nonsense.
After closing the lid, he stood quietly nearby.
His gaze drifted unconsciously toward Kikyo's profile.
At that moment, the sharp aura she usually carried in battle had completely faded.
Her eyelashes were slightly lowered, and her eyes were calm and focused as she read. Her whole demeanor seemed gentle and composed, making her look like a completely different person from the fierce priestess on the battlefield.
"Good-looking people look good doing anything," Kagetsu commented casually, his tone full of straightforward admiration.
The tips of Kikyo's ears immediately turned faintly red.
She shot him a glare out of the corner of her eye before quickly lowering her gaze back to the book.
Perhaps unable to endure his overly direct stare, her reading speed noticeably increased.
Before long, she closed the manual and tossed it back into his arms with a hint of annoyance.
"Heh."
Kagetsu chuckled without the slightest embarrassment. He placed the manual back into the wooden box and then stored it inside the Kamui dimension, along with the scroll containing the Peach Immortal's sealed head.
Before he could even ask, Kikyo began explaining the contents of the Blood Sacrifice Tree Nurturing Method.
"This technique is extremely evil," she said. "It is roughly divided into three parts."
"The first part is called 'Blood Sacrifice to Become a Demon.'"
"It uses a special method that treats humans as nourishment, allowing ordinary trees to be cultivated into demonic trees like the man-faced fruit tree. During the cultivation process, the practitioner must continuously perform blood sacrifices using their own essence blood, eventually turning the demonic tree into a symbiotic entity,something similar to a shikigami."
"It not only records the method of blood sacrifice, but even includes specialized cultivation methods for the 'human nourishment,' ensuring that those victims provide the maximum possible nourishment."
"The second part is called 'Borrowing the Tree to Become an Immortal.'"
She paused slightly before continuing.
"This part is actually quite useful."
A faint smile appeared on Kikyo's face, and a trace of excitement entered her voice.
"It records how to use the demonic power of the man-faced fruit tree and combine it with one's own spiritual power, fusing them into what the text calls Sage Power."
"Once someone obtains this power, they gain a lifespan comparable to the man-faced fruit tree itself. They can also wield the tree's demonic techniques."
"You mentioned earlier that demonic power is essentially a form of natural energy. This method,combining demonic power with spiritual power,just happens to solve the problem I've been facing: finding a way to merge the natural energy I can sense with my own spiritual power."
"So this trip wasn't wasted after all," Kagetsu said, his eyes lighting up as a genuine smile appeared.
He had no interest in turning humans into demonic fertilizer.
But a method for fusing natural energy?
That was exactly what they needed.
"The third part is called 'Substitution.'"
Kikyo turned to glance at the withered stump of the demonic tree. Her tone grew heavier.
"This was most likely the Peach Immortal's real plan."
"Cultivating the demonic tree and fusing with it to become an immortal takes decades. By the time someone truly succeeds, their human body would already have grown old."
"So the method recorded here is to allow the demonic tree to absorb the cultivator's original body. Then a disciple is made to eat the so-called 'Fruit of Eternal Youth.'"
"In truth, the real purpose is to seize the disciple's young body and complete a possession and rebirth."
"Typical… absolutely typical," Kagetsu said, clicking his tongue.
Although he had already noticed that the Peach Immortal's story was full of holes, he hadn't expected it to be such a textbook evil cultivator scheme.
Back in his previous life, in the countless novels he had read, nine out of ten evil cultivators raised disciples precisely for this purpose,waiting for the day they could possess them.
The remaining one simply refined their disciples into pills.
"The shard of the Shikon Jewel must have disrupted his plan."
Piecing together what they had seen with the Peach Immortal's earlier story, Kagetsu continued with a smile.
"The shard amplified the demonic power of the man-faced fruit tree. The tree must have broken free from his control. After manipulating the Peach-Fruit Person, it turned the Peach Immortal into fertilizer,ruining his possession scheme."
"Mhm."
Kikyo nodded, clearly agreeing with his conclusion.
"…Hmm?"
Suddenly, Kagetsu's brow furrowed.
"The Peach-Fruit Person is dead."
The one he had previously trapped using Wood Release had completely lost all signs of life.
Kikyo followed his gaze.
The Peach-Fruit Person, still embedded in the tree trunk, had indeed stopped breathing.
His bloated body was shriveling rapidly before their eyes.
Within moments, it collapsed into a dried, mummified corpse.
Kikyo frowned.
"Just as the Peach Immortal said,the man-faced fruit tree had already taken control of him. His power came from the tree."
"Now that the tree is dead, it's only natural that he would end up like this."
Kagetsu nodded.
Just as he was about to say something,
Pop!
A crisp bursting sound came from nearby.
He turned toward the noise.
It was the gourd that had belonged to the Peach-Fruit Person. After Kagetsu had casually tossed it aside earlier, it had now lost the demonic power supporting it.
Without that power, it had completely shattered, fragments scattering everywhere.
Seeing this, a thought flashed through his mind.
He immediately looked up toward the building where the miniature landscape had been kept.
Sure enough,
BOOM!
A thunderous roar echoed through the valley.
The building embedded in the mountainside suddenly collapsed from within.
Soil, rocks, broken trees, shattered pieces of the house,and countless panicked figures,erupted outward with the falling debris.
The entire cliffside instantly descended into chaos.
"The miniature world has lost the demonic power supporting it," Kikyo said, her expression changing as she immediately understood what had happened.
"The people and objects inside have returned to their original size… and burst out."
P.S I am pretty sure the scripts should be chinese but it was like that so i kept it .